Philosophy by the Way

Random quote Arrogance of power [is] a psychological need that nations seem to have in order to prove that they are bigger, better, or stro...

The Fall of Icarus (Lantern console, Utrecht, NL) In my last blog, I described how Idomeneo, King of Crete, opposed the will of a god and th...

Random quote The phenomenon of something happening to a person’s mental stability when in power has been observed for centuries … Perhaps t...

Idomeneo, King of Crete, (Daniel Behle) and his people receiving the applause  after the  performance of Mozart's opera "Idomeneo...

Random quote Boredom results from being attentive to the passage of time itself. William James (1842-1910)  

Baruch de Spinoza In his book Es musste etwas besser werden … (It had to get a little better)   – in which Jürgen Habermas is interviewed b...

Random quote Texts offer their resistance to the reader, philosophical texts even more so. Jürgen Habermas (1929-) 

In old times, it was an often-used method to poison the wells of your enemy. Actually, it’s not only a method of the ancient past. In March ...

Random quote As a single, self-contained person, man can only exist by drawing breath from the space of meanings and reasons shared with ot...

Edward Sapir is especially known for his contributions to linguistics. During his work as a linguist, he studied Native American languages. ...

Random quote We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain...

About 100 years ago, a group of philosophers, the so-called logical positivists , tried to develop a system which should make it possible to...

Random quote The network of cultural patterns of a civilization is indexed in the language which expresses that civilization. Edward Sapir ...

Käthe Kollwitz, "Grieving Parents".  Roggeveld German Military Cemetary, Vladslo, Belgium “While nations go to war expecting quick...

Random quote The principle of inviolability of borders applies to every country whether it is in the East or in the West. Olaf Scholz, Germ...

Image by Chat GPT (see note below) Sometimes I am curious to know who I am according to AI. As far as I know there is not much about me on t...

Random quote You cannot outsource the assessment of a question to computers. There is no objective or detached criterion for it; a good que...

I think that everybody knows them, those unplanned, spontaneous tracks and paths through lawns, open grounds, ruderal terrain, etc. that we ...

Random quote If we do something good in a dilemma, we automatically omit something good in such a case and thus do something morally wrong....

Look at the picture. No doubt you’ll have noticed that the text there has been written by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The picture as such ...

Peace on Earth In light of the ongoing conflicts and tensions around the world, World War I strongly reminds us of the need for internation...

Dear Santa, Thank you very much for your presents. But I am afraid that by studying these books I cannot make the world better but only wo...

  The author of this blog. Photo taken by my father. Dear Santa, I am very worried. There is so much misery and war in the world. When I g...

 

Random quote We neither strive for, nor will, nor want, nor desire anything because we judge it to be good; on the contrary we esteem somet...

Monument for the more than 1100 patients of the psychiatric hospital in my town  murdered, directly or indirectly, by the nazis during the S...

Random quote Most controversies arise from this, that men do not correctly explain their own mind, or else interpret the view of the other ...

Montaigne's cenotaph in the Museum of Aquitaine Montaigne died on 13 September 1592. The cause of his death is not known, but nowadays s...

Word of the Year Brain rot: Supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsump...

In my blog last week, I discussed how rightist politicians and also the Dutch prime minister explained the recent riots in Amsterdam by the ...